


The Overly Passionate

by WaxyWolf



Category: High School Musical (Movies)
Genre: Bullying, Getting Together, High School, Multi, Panic Attacks, Pining, Polyamory, THIS IS SO PURE, Threesome - F/F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-26 09:45:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14998187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaxyWolf/pseuds/WaxyWolf
Summary: Kelsi has always preferred directing quietly from the wings than being on center stage. But as her junior year draws on, she realizes she's about to be thrust into the spotlight when she gets a crush on not one, but both of the most popular kids in her grade! What makes matters worse is that they're dating each other!Navigating the halls of East High can be tough. But when pining for Troy and Gabriella? Impossible! It's a good thing they seem to like her, and that she has friends who have her back





	The Overly Passionate

**Author's Note:**

> THERE IS NOT ENOUGH CONTENT FOR THIS PAIRING!  
> I may or may not have rewatched High School Musical, and I may or may not have gotten this truly terrible idea. But alas! Here we are anyways.  
> I really hope y'all like it! It's crack that takes itself seriously, and it's also tooth-rotting fluff. Bleh. 
> 
> Title from Dodie's "In The Middle" (More like the threesome ANTHEM)

She loves the music, has always loved the way it filled in the gaps in her head. In elementary school, she had been lonely, sometimes picked on for being quiet. She had started piano lessons in third grade, picked up the violin in sixth grade, and played through middle school. The loneliness was never as bad when she was wringing notes from a piano like it was an extension of herself. But then Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez changed everything. All of a sudden, she was invited to sit with other people at lunch, ate somewhere other than the music room. She went out shopping with Gabby and Taylor, paints her face for Troy and Chad’s basketball games, hums louder in the hallways. Without knowing it, she stops asking what the world wants from her and starts asking instead about what it can give her. She dares to steal smiles, writing choruses in her head as she waves at friends on her way to class. 

She writes more musicals, some sad, some happy. Ms. Darbus seems to always have some sort of critique for her work, but she usually selects one of her submissions. After Twinkle Towne, after sophomore year, Troy doing musicals becomes a common occurrence. Gabriella usually joins him onstage, and Kelsi beings to not just write shows, but direct them as well. Ms. Darbus still reigns supreme, but Kelsi’s music is what’s echoing in people’s heads at the end of the day. And Troy and Gabriella are her music. They weave around each other, voices clear and resounding, and Kelsi thinks yes, yes this is what I wanted. She is most often just off-stage, playing piano in the wings, and watches them uncover their hearts in front of an audience. She watches Troy spin Gabby around the stage, singing "I’ll never love someone like I love you, I’ll never, I’ll never," and she feels her heart hammer in her chest. But it’s probably because he’s singing her music, right? The notes she writes with such care, the story she wants to tell. But after the show, after everyone goes home and she’s lying in her bed, she feels her heart ache in that same sort of electric way. 

Oh, she thinks, blinking at her ceiling, blurry without her glasses on, oh no, oh no. She cannot fall for Troy Bolton. The one person she can’t have a crush on. But he sings her songs like it’s his last communion, puts so much passion into what he loves - basketball, acting, Gabby. He is very much in love with Gabby. It’s too late. It’s too late and she falls asleep with her eyes screwed shut, like she can’t stand to look at herself. She wanders around school for the next week, a hollow version of herself. It’s worse than when she was the music freak, because now people notice, and she has to paste a smile onto her face. The climax of the week is in theater rehearsal, when Kelsi is busy avoiding looking anywhere near Troy, and Gabby sways into the theater, laughing at something Ryan said, and it’s like she’s been punched in the gut. In a trance, she watches Gabby kiss Troy quickly on the cheek, and instead of feeling jealous, feels...like she wants to join in. Kelsi has known since middle school that girls registered somewhere on her radar of crush-able people, but she had never seen in the light of day, in the glow of stage lights as Gabby pushes her hair out of her face and looks up through her eyelashes. 

Of course. Of course she gets a crush on the most iconic couple at East, on both of them. Of course she falls for her friends, friends who are very happily dating each other. Of course she put off her huge wait-I-like-girls-too? scare until junior year. What else could happen? Kelsi sits through several weeks of confusion and pretending like she’s not watching the school’s star-crossed lovers flirt with each other. She pretends like she’s not imagining Troy telling her that he’ll never love someone like he loves her, imagining Gabby holding her hand and kissing her temple in the doorway to their class. But there’s a reason she preferred the wings to onstage; she’s a terrible actor. 

It’s after school a few weeks later, when she’s the only one left in the theater, scribbling notes in the notes of the sheet music and packing up when she hears footsteps. She turns to see Troy smiling at her, striding over from stage right. Her heart skips a beat, but she sets down her pencil and smiles back. Troy crosses the stage swiftly and leans against the piano.

“Hey, do you have a minute? I wanted to talk with you before you left today.” She nods, spine feeling like ice and iron. He looks behind him quickly, then turns back to her, a contemplative look on his face. “I guess being direct is the best way to do this. Okay.” He shoves his hands into his pockets. Kelsi is frozen, caught between uncertainty and illegal excitement. “This is going to sound crazy, but. Well, uh, can I take you to dinner?” She is breaking apart. She is shell shocked. Troy is going to cheat on Gabby, with her of all people. She stands there like an idiot, a wax statue of herself, certain that one moment more will melt her to nothing. She feels angry now. Until-”Well, not just me, with Gabby as well. Me and Gabriella. Both of us are going to dinner, with you, if you say yes.” Kelsi is still bubbling. This was never something she accounted for. 

“Like-like a date? With both of you?” Troy nods, looking a little scared, as if he’s melting too. Kelsi blinks. She’s imagined this sort of interaction so many times, but it was impossible (or so she thought) that when faced with it outside of her head, she doesn’t know how to respond. “Is that even-even possible? Can we make it work?” Troy shrugs, looking a little more hopeful. 

“We can give it a shot. Gabriella and I, we really like you and we were hoping that-that you might want to be a part of our relationship.” She wants to say yes. She wants to leap into his arms and dance all the way to his house where she can braid Gabby’s hair and they can let the world fall away. But she didn’t spend most of middle and high school alone because of her stunning self confidence. She steps back from Troy, eyes squinting at him through the glare of the stage lights.

“Is this like a-a kinky threesome thing? Did you ask me because you know I won’t say no? Do you-” She cuts off, breath tangling up in her throat. Do they know about her crush? Has she been too obvious? Have her stares finally gotten too much? Troy’s eyes widen. 

“What? No, we-No! I mean maybe, yeah, but we want to date you because we like you! I like how you’re always kind, you always are positive. You’re incredibly talented and smart and pretty. Do you know how many times Gabriella talks about how she wants to kiss you every time you tuck your hair behind your ear and chew the end of your pencil? I like you because of who you are. We both do.” Kelsi is back to burning. Something inside of her grows brighter, something she only lets out at night or when she’s writing a new duet for Troy and Gabby. She smiles, feet shuffling and Troy looks a little relieved. She realizes she hasn’t answered him yet. 

“Oh um, yes. Yes. I want to go on a date with both of you.” She smiles so wide, she thinks her lips will split. Troy laughs, then runs a hand through his hair and laughs again. It’s clear that he was nervous to hear her response. He really does care. In a moment bolstered by adrenaline, she offers her hand. He smiles at her, that one grin that makes the moms in the audience of their shows swoon, takes her hand, and together they walk out of the theater, light as air.  
There are plenty of bumps along the way. Kelsi remains awkward around them for a week or two. It’s just, they’re so comfortable around each other already, slotting into each other’s lives with practiced ease. It’s because they’d been together for a year before her, Kelsi knows that in time it will get easier to take initiative, feel relaxed when she’s with them, but she can’t help but feel inadequate. Gabby and Troy are more than indulgent, letting her take things at her speed. She’s never been in a real relationship before, and this is all uncharted territory. It’s not uncommon for her to be seen with East High’s star crossed lovers, so for those few weeks of acclimating, no one questions the three of them. But after a while, people start picking up on the change of their dynamic. 

Three weeks after they become an item, Kelsi wears Troy’s letterman jacket and Gabriella’s favorite necklace. She feels like she’s wearing armor all day, protected by her boyfriend and girlfriend’s iconic items. She gets a lot of stares, and by lunch, there’s a rumor going around that Troy is cheating on Gabriella with the quiet pianist. She gets many dirty looks, some brave soul even going to far as to plaster her locker in sticky notes calling her a whore and a slut. She’s walking back from fifth period when the hallway around her goes silent. She clutches her books tighter, and the crowd parts in front of her locker. Her hand flies to her mouth. She can’t feel her toes. The necklace, with the tiny silver moon charm, around her neck feels heavy, constricting. She almost doesn’t notice the crowds parting once again, this time to let another girl through. Kelsi feels a hand on her shoulder and looks up to see Sharpay, dressed head to toe in pink sequins and looking like she’s about to rip the perpetrator limb from limb, Ryan trailing behind her in a matching vest.   
Sharpay has mellowed out since Troy and Gabby got the lead in Twinkle Towne. She’s become a friend to all of them, yet never losing that air of entitlement. Fortunately, she mostly uses her powers for good instead of evil, such as not letting people take advantage of Gabby and other kinder souls, buying Chad a graphing calculator as congratulations when he made it into honors algebra, and making sure every cast party has a disco ball. Kelsi hasn’t interacted with her much, still a little scared, but she knows that Sharpay has a heart under all that fake fur and straightened bangs. Sharpay surveys the scene, taking in the awful notes, Kelsi’s stricken face, the leather jacket with ‘Bolton’ written on the back, the charm necklace, and the strangely quiet hall of people who won’t meet her eyes. They all clearly believe that whoever defiled Kelsi’s locker was in the right, even if they didn’t have the guts to do it themselves. She takes in all of this in the sweep of fake eyelashes, and decides to take action. She snaps, and everybody jumps.

“I want this off her locker by the end of passing period. Ryan, tell Mrs. Howard that Kelsi will be missing sixth period, and get someone to get her notes.” She leads Kelsi down the hall to a secluded music room. What feels like a hundred stares accompany them, and Kelsi feels like her eyes are burning from the effort of holding back tears. She knew this would happen. Albuquerque isn’t a small town, but the people are a little less than accepting things like polyamory. Hell, she didn’t know it existed till an internet deep-dive last year, late at night long before this whole mess began. It’s no surprise that people are confused, misinterpret what they have, chose not to understand because it’s easier to condemn. When the door to the music room shuts, she bursts into hiccuping sobs. Sharpay, ever the master of handling human emotion, hands her a pack of tissues and lets her cry, typing something on her phone. Kelsi sniffles, trying to reign in her raging panic. She hopes Sharpay’s power over the student body extends into cleaning up her locker. All she can see is “Troy deserves better” and “I hope you die, freak” pasted behind her eyelids. She doesn’t feel like she’s wearing armor anymore, she feels like she’s wearing a costume, something fake and flimsy. She sits in the quiet of the music room, letting the stress of the day come out of her in bursts, before Sharpay interupts her pity party. 

“Do you love him?” It’s a simple question, one that no one has asked her in all of this, and it takes her a moment to compose herself enough to respond.

“Yeah, I do.” Sharpay hums, and Kelsi hesitates before adding, “And. I love her too.” The room is again silent, save for the bell signaling that sixth period is beginning. Kelsi wonders if this will end Sharpay’s random burst of generosity. Then she feels the other girl sit down next to her, cell phone tucked into her pocket.

“My parents got a divorce when Ryan and I were eight.” Kelsi looks up at her sharply. A girl like Sharpay seems like she has the perfect life. Sharpay shrugs, “We play one against the other, that’s how we get whatever we want; just tell one the other would buy it for us if we asked. Long story short, I haven’t grown up with stunning examples of love and relationships.” She takes Kelsi’s hand in hers, “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that love comes in many shapes and sizes. So if you love them, don’t be afraid of it. You’re not wrong for loving someone else. Or rather, two someones.” She smirks, pink lipgloss quirking up, and Kelsi feels just a bit braver in the face of what has happened. At that moment, Gabriella crashes through door, Troy close behind. Kelsi almost starts crying again, but Gabby wraps her into a hugs that forces all of the dark thoughts out and Troy hugs the both of them, banishing any more bad events, and she finally feels safe. She feels...loved. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Sharpay get up and dust her skirt off, looking proud of herself. Kelsi closes her eyes and lets herself be enveloped in arms. This too, they can conquer.

Things get easier, if only by a little bit. The school still remains unsure, not knowing what to make of the three of them. But Sharpay keeps the plebeians in check, and the basketball team makes sure no one messes with the three of them. It’s not easy, like the way love is portrayed in the movies, but it’s worth it. It’s worth every second. And when the next show rolls around and it’s time for the curtain call, Troy and Gabby pull her out of the wings and onto the stage. She’s laughing and trying to pull away but they won’t let her. She’s caught on fire, the stage lights finally too hot for her, but she finds that she’s still breathing. She’s burning with them, up there under the lights.

**Author's Note:**

> This is crack. But it's cute crack. Sue me I like cute things.
> 
> Come say hi or hurl abuse at me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sunstarsseokjin


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